http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/01/world/asia/01iht-myanmar.html
BANGKOK — The most heartbreaking moment for doctors and nurses treating people with H.I.V./AIDS in Myanmar is the arrival of a new patient. Running short of funds and medications, clinics have started turning dying people away.
“They continue to knock on our doors, even though we can’t take in most of them,” said Joe Belliveau, operations manager of the international aid group Médecins Sans Frontières.
The 23 clinics run by the group, also known as Doctors Without Borders, are the primary dispensers in Myanmar of the antiretroviral drugs that can prolong the lives of those infected with H.I.V., the virus that leads to AIDS. So most of the people it cannot treat are likely to die.
The people of Myanmar, a country that seems to have been marked for suffering, receive little foreign assistance — the country ranks among the lowest per capita for such aid in the world. The same is true for assistance for people with H.I.V./AIDS.
Médecins Sans Frontières estimates that 240,000 people are currently infected with H.I.V. in Myanmar and that 76,000 are in urgent need of antiretroviral drugs. Every year, about 25,000 people with the virus die.
The group’s clinics have been providing 11,000 people with the antiretroviral drugs that keep them alive. The longer they live, the more treatment they need. The group says it is unable to increase its budget there without taking money away from people in need elsewhere.
Last year it made the difficult decision to stop accepting any new patients in order to continue treating the old ones. It has opened its doors a little bit this year, accepting 3,000 new patients, still a fraction of those in need.
“When we stopped last July it was devastating for the staff,“ Belliveau said. “They couldn’t even treat the ones dying on their doorsteps.”
This year, the United Nations-backed Global Fund To Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria has applied for government permits to bring antiretroviral drugs into Myanmar, and the number of people receiving treatment is likely to rise.
But that will only be one step. Fewer than 20 percent of those who need the drugs receive them, either from international groups or, in very small amounts, from the government, Médecins Sans Frontières said in a report released in November.
When a photographer visited a clinic a few months ago, he found anguish and fatalism among the people who had not received the drugs.
“I can only live longer if I have ART,” said one 28-year-old woman, referring to the antiretroviral treatment she needs. “Most of the money and possessions I had are already gone. My family sends me food from the village, but they cannot support my treatment. If I get ART I will be able to live, if not, I will die.”
In one room the photographer found a 49-year-old man, gaunt and weak, sitting on the side of a bed. He had no family, and because of the stigma of the disease he was ashamed to tell his friends or co-workers about it.
“The worst thing for me is the loneliness,” he said.
Two weeks after his picture was taken, he was dead.
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Dying, and Alone, in Myanmar
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
http://english.dvb.no/news.php?id=1972
Dec 1, 2008 (DVB)泡n Thailand-based organisation providing shelter, healthcare and education to HIV-positive Burmese migrant women is one of 25 community-based organisations selected to receive the Red Ribbon Award.
Social Action for Women works in Mae Sot on the Thai-Burma border, where it runs a centre providing treatment and shelter for women with HIV, a safe house for children orphaned by AIDS and a sex education programme aimed at Burmese migrants.
The Red Ribbon Award is presented by the United Nations Development Programme and the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS.
The award highlights the work of organisations who have taken innovative and sustainable approaches to HIV prevention and treatment and give valuable support to people living with HIV/AIDS.
Twenty-five organisations from Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas were selected for the 2008 award, including two based in Thailand.
As well as Social Action for Women, the Thailand-based Empower Foundation was also selected for the award to its work on HIV prevention and promoting the rights of sex workers.
Aye Aye Mar, director of Social Action for Women, said the group would receive their award from UNDP in Thailand on 1 December, World AIDS Day.
"We offer assistance to women affected by the HIV virus as well as looking after children orphaned by AIDS," she said.
Aye Aye Mar said many women and children from inside Burma who were affected by HIV/AIDS had been coming to the border to seek assistance at the Mae-Tao clinic.
"We would like to give our respect to HIV/AIDS activists such as Ma Phyu Phyu Thin who are doing all they can to provide assistance to AIDS victims and raise awareness on how to prevent the disease as well as fighting against it," she said.
"We also hope the world community can do more to help AIDS victims in Burma."
When the recipients were announced in June, UNDP痴 HIV/AIDS Practice Director Jeffrey O樽alley said it was an opportunity to raise the profile of the work done by community-based groups around the world.
展e have brilliant examples of community action and leadership across the globe,・O樽alley said.
滴owever, most of them are unheard and unsung. The Red Ribbon Award is a way to recognise and honour them.・p>
Reporting by Yee May Aung
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